


Four Minutes

by Ozzyyy



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Bullying, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Niki goes feral to protecc, One Shot, Orphanage, Ranboo and Niki adopt each other its amazing, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:40:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28230018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ozzyyy/pseuds/Ozzyyy
Summary: Ranboo's not exactly the most normal looking kid in the house. Niki immediately protects this anxious lad from all danger. But she can't be there always and kids can be cruel...It took only minutes for Ranboo and Niki's bad day to turn into the worst day
Relationships: Niki | Nihachu & Ranboo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 298





	Four Minutes

**Author's Note:**

> tw: bullying, physical violence, graphic brutality, blood
> 
> as always, if any of the creators are uncomfortable with the content I've created, if they were to let me know i would take down the fic. As far as I know, the ccs dont mind fics like this, please let me know if that changes. 
> 
> (im so tired jsdfsljfd my brain was dead when i wrote this)

Four minutes. That's how long Niki had promised she'd be gone for. Just to the gardens and back, jogging the whole way. Ranboo had left his scarf there and he was too scared to go outside the house at night. Fair enough, in her eyes. 

Ranboo had always been the target of vengeful ignorant village people who found his appearance "threatening". Half enderman, half something, fully tall. Even at the young age of 11, he was taller than most of his peers. He stuck out like a sore thumb among the mostly human clutter of children at the house for 'lost children'. 

It was a soft way of saying the kids you abandoned ended up in homes, orphanages, whatever. Niki hated all of them. She'd been carted to four now, waiting for her mother's illness to pass so she could go home. And then, well, she picked up a little brother along the way. Ranboo was lanky, anxious, and let people walk all over him. She just couldn't have that. She'd seen in his eyes the little kid who got pushed around by her brothers when she was younger (even though she was only two to three years older than him, max)

So, she took him under her metaphorical wing. Her stubborn anger kept Ranboo from getting beat up, and his placating nature kept her from getting in trouble with adults. A criminal duo made in heaven. Eventually it just made sense to stick by each other for as long as possible, to keep one from falling prey to some machination of hell that was social pressures. 

It's why she promised him, four minutes. He left his scarf at the pond, she'd run and get it. It was dark, she was fast, no one would know she even left. Four minutes. Four minutes of sprinting through the cold evening drifting snow. Four minutes of clouded breath escaping into the open air. She made good time, snatching it up just where Ranboo had hung it on the branch then immediately spinning on her heels and running back. 

Four minutes was too long. 

She returned back to the home the same way they always did, through the back kitchen window and over the counter, closest to the stairs. She had done this millions of times, it was almost second nature. 

Now. Now Niki stuttered in her stepping, one boot halfway over the wooden trim of the open window. Scuffling, in the dark. Someone was sneaking around, rather noisily.   
Sucking in a quick breath, she practically throws herself from the window and onto the kitchen floor, ankles aching at the tension when she hits hard stone. 

She winces, but it's noiseless. No one seems to pause in their movements besides her, which she takes as meaning she's not been noticed. The open window will be annoying to explain tomorrow, she'll have to apologize (probably lose a meal or two), but it'd be a much more lenient punishment to whatever hell she'd rain upon herself if she got caught sneaking out after dark. 

Niki waits with bated breath as the scuffling person (several people?) exit out the front door and shut it behind them with a muffled click. 

She curses the tug in her stomach to go investigate. It was dangerous! She hadn't really seen who it was, they looked rather short-- so probably not an adult. Maybe it was some other kids sneaking out? If she caught them, maybe she could blackmail them into leaving her and Ranboo alone for a bit! 

Her expression lights up at the thoughts of them getting a little break from the constant bullying. They couldn't go a day without Ranboo's face in a snow drift or Niki's knuckles getting split. 

She resolves herself to follow them and slips off her shoes. They'd make too much sound now, so she discards them with the pile of shoes by the back door. No one would notice. Much quieter, she sneaks down the hallway and clambers onto the couch that was pressed against large double windows. 

Niki carefully draws a finger across the curtains, currently closed, and presses closer to the frosting glass, hoping to peek at what commotion was happening outside now. 

Her blood runs cold. Four minutes, she was gone for four minutes-- 

That's her little brother. That's Ranboo, being dragged, nose bleeding, across the snow, towards town square. She doesn't recognize a lot of details beyond the red that clouds her vision, but that's him. She knows it. Can see it in the way his mouth curls shut, trembling with unspoken pleas. In his blood-caked forehead plastering his stupid dual colored hair to his skull. 

She's outside before she even considers preparing. No shoes, no coat, no regard for how asleep everyone else was in the house is. 

Niki slams open the door and sprints towards them, voice pitched high and hoarse, "Fucking let him go!" She screams, flinging herself at the closest perpetrator. There's three of them, two dragging Ranboo and one of them keeping watch from behind. Good news, she clocks him first. In the seconds it takes for them to go from vertical to horizontal, she's pistoned back her fist and slammed it hard into the fucker's nose. 

Her knuckles, already bruised, split again. Fuck. 

There's resounding startled noises from the two holding Ranboo, commotion she barely hears as she grabs the other's collar and slams his skull into the pavement, feeling a sick satisfaction in watching him pass out. Someone launches at her sat form on top of his accomplice and she falls off. They tumble in the snow, elbows knocking painfully. 

Niki snarls and grips at anything she can firmly clutch, it being a handful of sweater this time. She yanks it sideways, off her, and she scrambles to her feet. With brief hesitation, she flings her foot into the other's side, stomping down on his hip and rib. The boy curls up in pain, letting out a gutted shout. She turns to the last boy, who's already sprinting across the icy cobble to the house again. 

She wishes the situation wasn't so serious, because the fucker slips and eats shit without her even needing to do something. When his head pulls back, bloody and snot slick, she lets it go. There's more important things at hand. 

Niki looks for her brother, wiping her hands of their bloody marks and scuttling over to him. He's curled in, hugging his knees, openly weeping. At first, she's about to ask what's wrong. Something must be hurting, maybe he's been injured? And then she notices what his clawed fingers at scrambling for purchase against on his face.

For the second time that night, Niki's stomach plummets. It's a muzzle. An iron cage muzzle for beasts and monsters, pulled tight against his face and tied so tightly to his skull that she can see blood bubble under the tempered metal. 

She understands his hysteria. 

"It's okay, it's alright," She croaks out, trying to soothe the younger boy, "It's okay, I'll get it--" Her shaky fingers reach out and untangle the leather knot behind his ears. The muzzle clatters to the ground with a sharp sound, and Ranboo immediately whimpers, pushing with his feet to get away from the contraption like it'd snap back by it's own volition. 

She picks up the metal cage (her fingers brush rusted metal and blood caked on the wires. Her heart hurts, her head is spinning, everything is a monster and she must protect him) and Niki chucks the thing as far as her arms will allow her. It lands in a snow bank far off, behind a house, and she reminds herself to go back and see it burned when Ranboo was safe. 

Niki reaches out with open palms to the boy, non-verbally asking if he needed a hug. 

His sobs hiccup as he practically leaps into her arms, clutching her like a lifeline. She can feel the blood dripping from his face onto her shirt, but she could give less of a shit. 

She rubs soft circles into his spine, murmuring quiet affirmations to him; "It's okay. It's alright. I'm sorry-- I'm so sorry, Boo. It's over, it's gone." 

He sniffles, breath stuttering as he chokes out; "They c-called me a monster. Said I--Said I needed to be locked up like one--" 

"And they'll suffer for it." She promises ruefully, jaw clicking shut with the intensity of her hatred, "You're not a monster, Boo. You're just not. You're not even dangerous or scary-- they're just stupid. Really stupid, and they need some sense knocked into them." 

Ranboo nods, giving a watery laugh, "I'm sorry-- You weren't even gone for that long and I-I managed to get beat up again--" 

"I'm never leaving you alone again," Niki promises, "I swear to it. Four minutes... if I was any longer, you could've been more hurt or-or--" Niki doesn't even want to think about what those monsters would have done to her little brother if she hadn't seen them. If they had gotten away with what ever their plan was. 

"You're my little brother." She decides, squeezing him gently, "I'm not letting you go, ok? We stick together. And I'm not gonna let that happen again." 

"M'love you." He mumbles back, burying his head into her shoulder. 

"Love you too." She sighs. 

Niki knows, begrudgingly, they need to pull apart and head back inside. They will, of course, hand in hand, sneak back up to their bed and ignore the blood weeping from Ranboo's nose. They'll clean up, stay close, and wait until the morning, when they're sure to be reprimanded for getting into a fight. 

But they'll hold hands. Be close, and not let the other get too far. And everything hurts a bit less when you know your sibling is here to help.


End file.
